China Expresses Concern Over Romney Anti-China Militarism

China’s official media expressed concerns this week that Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is using incendiary, militaristic, “Cold War” language that could serious harm relations between China and the United States.

“Cold-War Mentality”

The magazine quotes China’s state-controlled media,

“By any standard, the U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s China policy, as outlined on his official campaign website, is an outdated manifestation of a Cold War mentality,” read a commentary in Monday’s China Daily. “It endorses the ‘China threat’ theory and focuses on containing China’s rise in the Asia-Pacific through bolstering the robust U.S. military presence in the region.”

In the face of China’s accelerated military build-up, the United States and our allies must maintain appropriate military capabilities to discourage any aggressive or coercive behavior by China against its neighbors.

… The Department of Defense should reconsider recent decisions not to sell top-of-the-line equipment to our closest Asian allies. We should be coordinating with Taiwan to determine its military needs and supplying them with adequate aircraft and other military platforms.

A campaign promise to supply Taiwan with “top-of-the-line” military equipment is historically provocative. The language is not leaving wiggle room. It is not saying we should “consider” supplying Taiwan, is says we “should be” supplying them.

Taiwan is considered by China to be the territory of China, not a sovereign state. The United State officially “does not support” Taiwanese independence and places a condition that there be a peaceful outcome – a position the Romney campaign undermines.

About Dave Johnson

Dave has more than 20 years of technology industry experience. His earlier career included technical positions, including video game design at Atari and Imagic. He was a pioneer in design and development of productivity and educational applications of personal computers. More recently he helped co-found a company developing desktop systems to validate carbon trading in the US.